The national project

the sixth National Youth Conference (NYC)

The press this week provided thorough coverage of the sixth National Youth Conference (NYC) as well as the seventh International Conference on IT Convergence for Egyptians with Disabilities.

Usama Al-Ghazali Harb wrote that he felt optimistic and relieved when following the NYC proceedings.

He ascribed these feelings to several factors such as honouring a group of gifted youth which raised the author's hope that we will soon restart celebrating Science Day, an occasion that we used to commemorate every year under President Nasser.

In addition, Al-Ghazali Harb explained in the daily Al-Ahram that the conference saw the initiation of the new national project which is likely to improve pre-university education.

“However, I would like to underline here that we are simply in need of restoring the school as a comprehensive educational and disciplinary institution. And by school, I mean the state school – not the elite school – that provides education to the majority of the population,” he wrote.

Mahmoud Al-Kardousi pinned high hopes on the national project disclosed in the NYC.

He remembered when he was a university student under President Sadat in the 1970s. During those days, he recalled in the daily Al-Watan, university students would take their demands and grievances to the ruler. But now, Al-Kardousi said, everything has changed: university youth are not keen on the country or on defending the rights of the poor. They just want to immigrate to more developed countries.

And that is what President Al-Sisi is trying to deal with. "He is trying to go to youth, meet them in one of their institutions. He is setting an example that the ruler is not their enemy, and is keen to approach them in order to serve them and help them achieve their dreams," Al-Kardousi wrote.

The national project presents the future of youth and youth are the core of that project, he concluded.

Mohamed Al-Dessouki Rushdi pointed to another achievement of the NYC: the president's call for renewing the religious discourse from Cairo University, the same educational institution that led the education and enlightenment process in Egypt.

However, the writer did not expect that step to be made overnight especially that the president initiated the call four years ago but the men of religion and culture failed to take serious steps on the issue at the time.

“Thus, we should make use of the president's re-initiation of the file by creating a sound basis for a process that will stop opportunists from impeding that step,” Rushdi wrote in the daily Al-Youm Al-Sabei.